Among Conservatives,
Proposal is One of the Most Divisive in Recent Memory

The House of Representatives
is scheduled to vote Thursday on a controversial provision that
would lift restrictions on the reimportation of prescription
drugs. Debate over the proposal has been extremely divisive and
the vote is expected to be close.

Edmund F. Haislmaier, a member
of The National Center for Public Policy Research's board of
directors and a health care expert, is available for interviews
on drug reimportation and/or Medicare drug bills. Haislmaier
has written two papers ("Dying for a Discount: The Dangers
in Importing Drugs" and "Really Strange Bedfellows:
The Odd Alliance Promoting Drug Re-Importation" for The
National Center in recent weeks, available on our website at
www.nationalcenter.org. His paper on how Congress's Medicare
drug provisions would reduce seniors' existing private coverage
was published by the Heritage Foundation on July 17.

Proponents of the reimportation
proposal say it would help lower drug costs in the U.S.

Opponents express various concerns.
Among them: 1) doubt that reimportation would actually lower
U.S. drug costs; 2) concern that drug safety would be compromised
by criminals with a profit motive or by terrorists; 3) philosophical
opposition to government price controls; 4) fear that funds needed
for research would dry up; 5) fear that the proposal would make
it more difficult for the FDA to enforce restrictions on certain
drugs subject to special controls in the U.S.

The debate has been unusually
acrimonious. The legislation's opponents have been appalled that
legislators they perceived to be pro-free market are promoting
what is considered to be the importation of foreign countries'
price controls, and many have safety concerns. Congressman Gil
Gutknecht (R-MN), a leading proponent of the legislation, says
the safety issue is a red herring ("All the safety arguments,
if you scratch off the veneer, are ludicrous"), and has
accused both the Clinton and Bush Administrations of dishonestly
refusing to certify that drug reimportation is safe ("I
think in truth they all know this is safe"). Gutknecht also
has called the notion that terrorists could strike the U.S. through
drug tampering "just lunacy. Nobody believes that."

Gutknecht has little respect
for arguments made by opponents. "They will use scare tactics,
but they never use the facts..." Organizations and media
outlets that have publicly criticized the reimportation proposal
in statements, papers and/or editorials in recent days include,
among others: American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax
Reform, Cato Institute, Club for Growth, Competitive Enterprise
Institute, Family Research Council, Frontiers of Freedom, Galen
Institute, Heritage Foundation, Human Events, Manhattan Institute,
National Center for Policy Analysis, National Center for Public
Policy Research, National Review, National Taxpayers Union, Small
Business Survival Committee, TechCentral Station, Traditional
Values Coalition, Washington Times and Weekly Standard.

Congressman Gutknecht says
special technology on labels can defeat drug counterfeiting ("we
can guarantee safety"); FDA Administrator Mark McClellan,
M.D. says the technology is costly and ineffective, in part because
illegitimate products can be sold in legitimate containers.

For interviews with Ed Haislmaier,
please call David Almasi at 202/543-4110 x106.